Dundee United’s Black and Global Majority Footballers
- woventogetherdundee
- Apr 7
- 10 min read
As a supporter of Dundee United since the early 1970s I have seen nearly all of the club’s players over a long period and so thought I should offer some personal memories of those players from global majority backgrounds I have been able to watch in United’s tangerine strip over the years.
Having foreign players in the team is not a novelty at Tannadice. Older fans will remember the recruitment of Scandinavian players in the mid-1960s that made United, along with Greenock Morton, trailblazers in opening up opportunities in Britain for players who had mainly been amateurs before arriving in Scotland. It took much longer for any players of colour to be brought to the club and this started with Englishman Raphael Meade in 1988.
Meade was an exciting signing for the fans having made his name with his local club, the mighty Arsenal, before a stint with Sporting Lisbon from which club he was signed by United. He endeared himself to the United faithful by scoring in both league and cup derby matches against Dundee FC and a tie-winning goal against Floriana in the European Cup Winners Cup. Sadly, his time at Tannadice was all too brief and he was sold to Luton Town in 1989.
In 1989 Peter Hinds arrived at Tannadice. He was born in Barbados and moved to England as a child. His route into professional football was unusual as it followed a period serving in the British Army after which he played as a striker for non-league clubs Enfield and Bishop Auckland. His agent negotiated a move to a Japanese club, Fujita Kogyo, and it was after his time there that he signed for Dundee United. Unfortunately, he was unable to replicate his Japanese form and moved to Maritimo in Madeira, a Portuguese side, in 1990. He subsequently played for several clubs in Northern Ireland and was still turning out for an amateur team, 1st Bangor Old Boys, at the age of 54.
In 1993 the 20-year-old Jerren Nixon arrived at Tannadice from Trinidad and made an immediate impact with his tricky wing play, becoming a full Trinidad & Tobago international about the same time.
In his debut season he helped Dundee United win the Scottish Cup for the first time, coming on as a late substitute against Rangers in the 1994 final. However, too much pressure was put on his young shoulders when the United manager that had signed him, Ivan Golac, claimed he would be worth £20 million in future, a huge amount at that time. As it happened, neither he nor Golac stayed with United much longer: the manager was sacked as the club drifted towards relegation in the following season and in the wake of the club’s demotion Nixon was sold to FC Zurich for a very respectable £200,000. He went on to have an eight-year career in Swiss football and carried on playing for his national team until 2004.
Golac was also responsible for signing the first Brazilian to play in the Scottish Premier League, although his predecessor, the legendary Jim McLean, had come very close to signing Josimar, the right-back from Brazil’s 1986 World Cup team. An intrepid Scottish press photographer even went to Rio and got Josimar to don a United shirt for the story. Sadly, the move fell through and the Brazilian went to Sevilla in Spain.
The Brazilian that did sign for United in 1995, Sergio Henriques Gomes, was more of an unknown quantity, having signed from Amora, a lower league Portuguese club, for £300,000. He showed a lot of promise and scored four goals in his 16 appearances but then ran into passport problems and moved on to a Kuwaiti club. The dual citizenship documents which allowed him freedom of movement and a four-year stint in Portugal were apparently not good enough to satisfy UK authorities. Another unfortunate occurrence as United drifted towards relegation at the end of the 1994/95 season and the loss of a player that might have scored the goals to keep the club in the top division.
1998 saw the short-term arrival of three African players signed by manager Tommy Mclean. Cameroon international Jean-Jacques Misse Misse had played against United in Europe while with Turkish side Trabzonspor and due to contractual problems was available to sign for United for free. After only a few appearances he was allowed to leave. Similarly, Nigerian-born Emmanuel Omoyinmi arrived on loan from West Ham United (one of six loan periods during his five years as a Hammer) and left after four appearances. Much more was expected of Roger Boli from Côte d’Ivoire, an experienced player from French football, who was signed from Walsall. He was unlucky in that he scored two goals on his league debut but both were ruled out as offside, decisions which present day Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology might have overturned. Sadly, injury was again a major factor during his stay at Dundee United and he left after just a few games to join his last club, Bournemouth, before retiring in 1999.
In 1998 legendary former player Paul ‘Luggy’ Sturrock returned to Tannadice as manager after a successful spell in charge of St Johnstone. He left the club in 2000, but not before signing Hasney Aljofree from Bolton Wanderers. The Mancunian defender had a Singaporean father and English mother. The manager and player did not spend long together in Dundee, but Hasney must have impressed Luggy, who went on to sign him up for Plymouth Argyle, Sheffield Wednesday and Swindon Town over the course of his managerial career down south. A successful career as a youth coach followed for Hasney after retiring from playing in 2010. In 2024 he was appointed Head of Coach Education and Development by the Football Association of Singapore.
In 2000 Alex Smith, who had taken over as manager, was looking to recruit players to bolster United’s fortunes. The club’s position had slipped after a promising period under Tommy McLean. Joachim Fernandez, a Senegal-born Frenchman, was signed and released in short order and is perhaps best remembered for an on-field altercation with Paul Gascoigne in a friendly against Everton. Smith seemed to have pulled off a major coup when he signed two Cameroon internationals in August 2000: the experienced Alphonse Tchami and the promising youngster Mvondo Atangana. Tchami was gone from the club by Christmas, but Atangana remained for two years without ever getting a regular place in the team. In January 2001 he featured in an article in The Observer magazine about the 550 foreign players in the English and Scottish Leagues. He was the youngest of the eight players interviewed for the piece, which included some much better-known players. He was quizzed about his experiences since moving to Dundee and was somewhat incongruously photographed outside Dora’s chippie on the corner of Dura Street and Eliza Street in the Stobswell area of the city.
Nigerian-Scottish youngster Daniel Ogunmade signed for United in 2000, but after a handful of first-team appearances and a couple of loans to lower-league clubs he left to study in the US, playing college soccer for a while.
The next influx of global majority players came in 2003 when United signed three Trinidad & Tobago internationals. First to arrive was Russell Latapy, a very experienced player who had made his name in Portuguese football before starring for Hibernian and Rangers in Scotland. In January 2003 he signed a short-term contract with United after being released by Rangers. After leaving United he joined Falkirk in the summer of 2003 and enjoyed a late career flourish, still turning out for them and his international team at the age of 40.
Collin Samuel was the next Trinidad & Tobago international to arrive on the back of an excellent goal-scoring season with Falkirk. Ian McCall had signed him for Falkirk and after becoming United manager negotiated Samuel’s transfer in January 2003. His international teammate, Jason Scotland, quickly followed after a successful trial at Tannadice.
Samuel remained at the club until 2007. Scotland would probably have remained longer but for work permit problems. He was a very popular player, although he often made the most impact as an attacking substitute, never more so than when being introduced against Hibernian in the 2005 Scottish Cup semi-final in which he scored and helped the team to a comeback win. He played in the final against Celtic as United lost 1-0.
Shortly thereafter his work permit renewal was refused which meant that United could not proceed with their new contract offer. Worse still the player was almost immediately granted a work permit to play for St Johnstone in the division below and went on to be included in the Trinidad & Tobago squad for the 2006 World Cup. After leaving St Johnstone, Jason Scotland had a successful career in English football before coming back to Scotland to play for Hamilton Academical where he helped to gain promotion to the top flight. In the process he helped to relegate Hibernian in a play-off match in 2014. He finished his senior career at Stenhousemuir a couple of years later and subsequently occupied coaching positions with the Accies and with Larkhall Thistle.
Another player that will not be too well-remembered by the fans was Frenchman Karim Kerkar, an Algerian international who played a few games for the club in 2004 before spending most of the rest of his career in the Middle East.
2007 saw the signing of two players who made a major impact at the club. In January of that year Morgaro Gomis signed for United from Cowdenbeath. This French-born player, who would go on to win a couple of caps for Senegal while at Tannadice, took his first career steps in English non-league football before playing for Cowdenbeath. His performances there led to his signing by United boss Craig Levein, himself a former Cowdenbeath player and manager. He proved himself a valuable midfield player and became a firm fans’ favourite nicknamed Jimmy. He was the club’s young player of the year in his first season and a major part of the team that got to the 2008 League Cup Final where United were beaten by Rangers on penalties after a 2-2 draw. His greatest day came in 2010 when he was a member of the Scottish Cup winning team against Ross County. He left for Birmingham City at the end of the following season. He made two further short-term returns to United in 2013 and 2019 and also played for a number of other Scottish teams. At the age of 39 in 2024 he was still playing for East Stirlingshire in the Lowland League. Having played more than 200 games for United, he holds the club record for appearances by a Black player.
Almost as influential was Prince Buaben, a Ghanaian brought up in the Netherlands. He signed for United after a stint in the Ajax Amsterdam youth set-up. Problems over his residential status meant he could not take up the Dutch club’s offer of a contract. Craig Levein was able to take advantage of his family’s UK status and signed him in July 2007. He formed a good partnership with Gomis and played alongside him in the 2008 League Cup Final and the 2010 Scottish Cup Final. He too left in the summer of 2011, signing for Watford. He won one cap for Ghana while at United. Like Gomis he made subsequent appearances for other Scottish teams after his spell in England
We have already seen that managers can find themselves signing the same player for multiple clubs. This is understandable – they know what they are getting and can often take advantage of an established relationship to persuade a player to sign on the dotted line. Craig Levein signed the Surinamese Dutch striker Mark de Vries in 2002 while manager of Hearts and after moving to Leicester City he made him his first signing in January 2005. Levein was replaced as Leicester manager a year later. Mark de Vries was released by Leicester in January 2008 and Levein acted quickly to secure the player for United. He scored a memorable goal in the League Cup Final against Rangers. One of his two league goals was at Ibrox and he was booked for sarcastically checking with the officials whether the goal would be allowed after two earlier seemingly legitimate goals were chalked off. He left at the end of that season. In 2023 he was appointed as a coach with the AZ Alkmaar women’s team in the Netherlands.
Craig Levein once again used his connection to Leicester City to sign Eric Odhiambo on loan in January 2008. He made a few appearances before returning to his parent club. He later played for Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Denizlispor in Turkey and Sligo Rovers in Ireland before time with various English non-league clubs.
An African player who spent a few months with United in 2008 was Kémoko Camara, goalkeeper of the Guinea national team for which he made 71 appearances between 1998 and 2013. He spent all his time at Tannadice as understudy to Polish goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska without ever featuring for the first team.
At the start of the 2009/10 season Danny Cadamarteri was signed from Huddersfield Town. He had started his career with Everton and according to the Toffee Web site the Yorkshireman’s family history qualified him to play for England, Italy, Nigeria, Jamaica and Ireland. He was an England Under 21 international from 1998-2001. He was another player Craig Levein knew from his time at Leicester. Cadamarteri made an excellent start as main striker but lost his place when Jon Daly and David Goodwillie became first picks. At the end of the season United won the Scottish Cup under former assistant manager Peter Houston who had taken over when Craig Levein became Scotland manager. Cadamarteri stayed on until January 2011 when he was freed and rejoined Huddersfield. He ended his playing career with Carlisle United in 2014 and went into coaching.
Another Black English player who joined United in the summer of 2009 was Jennison Myrie-Williams. He had started his career at Bristol City in 2005, making 26 League One appearances before spending two seasons on several of loans to other clubs in that league after his parent club was promoted to the Championship. He made a similar number of appearances for Dundee United and featured in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Raith Rovers in 2010, but was not in the team that beat Ross County in the final. He left at the beginning of the following season and signed for St Johnstone. He played for a number of English league and non-league teams after leaving St Johnstone in 2011, most notably Port Vale.
Several further global majority players have worn Dundee United’s colours since the 2010 Cup Final victory and I hope to produce a second article that covers the intervening years.
Written by Steve Connelly
Sources
Wikipedia is a great source for playing statistics and personal information about footballers and you can find out more about all those mentioned in this article. There are also facts and photographs available at the Arab Archive. I am particularly grateful to David Powell, Archivist at D C Thomson for supplying various photographs. Thanks also to earlier research by Chikezie Ekeh and Fisayo Morenikeji which inspired this article.
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